The Allianz Knowledge Site's Who's Who features people and organizations that make a difference in the areas of climate change, microfinance, and demographic change.
Robert Annibale
Who’s that?
Citigroup’s Global Director of Microfinance
What does he do?
As head of the Citigroup Microfinance Group, Bob Annibale leads Citigroup’s relationships with microfinance institutions as commercial partners and clients, providing financing and product partnerships. Annibale’s aim is to make microcredit accessible to the majority of the population in many countries, including the poor and those without bank accounts, to encourage economic development among the world's poorest communities.
Annibale represents Citigroup on the Board of the Microfinance Information Exchange, the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds, and serves on several external boards and councils, including the Board of Advisors for the United Nations High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the University of London. He was previously a member of the UK Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office Africa Policy Group.
Annibale joined Citibank in 1982 and held various senior treasury, risk and corporate positions. He holds a BA degree in History and Political Science from Vassar College and a graduate degree in African History from the University of London.
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Christoph Bals
Who’s that?
Executive Director of Policy, Germanwatch
What does he do?
Climate expert Christoph Bals is the policy director of Germanwatch, an independent, non-profit, and non-governmental organization based in Germany. Since 1991, Germanwatch has tackled issues such as food and trade security, climate change, and North-South relations. In 2005, Bals launched the service “atmosfair” that neutralizes air travel emissions through climate protection projects. He was also one of the founders of the European Business Council for Sustainable Energy and the e-mission 55 business campaign. In Bals’ opinion, the targets of the Kyoto Protocol are far too low. He also repeatedly called for tougher U.S. standards on greenhouse gas emissions.
Bals holds a degree in theology, philosophy, and economics. In 2007, he was awarded with the German Journalism Prize 2008 for his paper “The dark side of biofuel”.
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Christina Barrineau
Who’s that?
Managing director of the Financial Access Initiative
What does she do?
Barrineau is managing director of the Financial Access Initiative, a joint project of Harvard, Yale and New York University that focuses research about improving access to financial services to the world’s poor.
Prior to this position, Barrineau was senior technical advisor for the United Nations International Year of Microcredit in 2005, a pivotal year for generating awareness internationally about the potential of microfinance. With the collaboration of several UN agencies and high-profile sponsors and partners, the Year helped transform microfinance from “something cute” (in the public eye) into something discussed seriously in corporate boardrooms and international meetings of the International Monetary Fund.
What does she say?
Asit K. Biswas
Who’s that?
President of the Third World Center for Water Management
What does he do?
Asit K. Biswas was born in India and lives in Mexico where he heads the Third World Institute for Water Management, an independent think tank focusing on knowledge generation, synthesis, application, and dissemination.
Biswas is the founder of the "International Journal of Water Resources Development," and has been its editor-in-chief for the past 21 years. He written or edited 64 books and published over 600 scientific and technical papers.
Biswas studied at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. He has lectured at Queen´s University in Kingston, Canada, before joining the Canadian Ministry of Environment. He later helped establish the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya and acted as senior scientific advisor to the executive director of UNEP and chaired the Middle East Water Commission.
Among his numerous prizes are the two highest awards of the International Water Resources Association (Crystal Drop and Millennium Award), Walter Huber Award of the American Society of Civil Engineering, and Honorary Degree of Doctor of Technology of the University of Lund in Sweden.
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Susy Cheston
Who’s that?
Senior vice-president for policy at Opportunity International
What does she do?
Cheston is a widely consulted expert on microfinance, women’s empowerment, and the reduction of HIV/AIDS. Apart from several published articles about microfinance and interviews on national television and radio, she testified before U.S. Congress in September 2005, urging them to continue to support microfinance as a key development tool.
Cheston joined the U.S.-based Opportunity International in 1991 as a field director in El Salvador. In 1993, she became executive director of the Women’s Opportunity Fund, where she helped develop the “Trust Group” microcredit lending model, which now reaches hundreds of thousands of women in the developing world.
What does she say?
Craig Churchill
Who’s that?
Microfinance expert at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and chairman of the World Bank's Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) Working Group on Microinsurance
What does he do?
In 2001, Craig Churchill joined the Social Finance Program at the International Labor Organization (ILO) where he focuses on how financial services can manage risks and reduce the vulnerability of the poor, for example through providing microinsurance or emergency loans. Churchill also chairs the CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance and serves on the Editorial Board of MicroBanking Bulleting and the Journal of Microfinance. In 2008, Churchill launched the Microinsurance Innovation Facility, a five-year partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which seeks to spread quality insurance in the developing world’s low income markets to reduce risks and overcome poverty.
Churchill has considerable microfinance experience both in developing and developed countries, with the Get Ahead Foundation, ACCION International, the MicroFinance Network, and Calmeadow. He has authored and edited numerous articles, papers, and training manuals on various microfinance topics. His most recent publication “Protecting the Poor: A Microinsurance Compendium” looks at over 40 organizations that are providing insurance to low-income people, synthesizing lessons from case studies to help practitioners understand how to better provide insurance to low-income markets. Churchill has a BA from Williams College and an MA from Clark University, both in Massachusetts, U.S.
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Daryl L. Collins
Who’s that?
Director of The Financial Diaries project
What does she do?
Continuing the work begun by Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, who had examined the financial lives of families in India and Bangladesh, Collins began in 2003 to track how 180 poor households in South Africa managed their money. Collins’s field data from 2003-2005 makes up the biggest set of data in "The Financial Diaries,” a project that seeks to understand the financial services that poor households use and still need.
Collins is working together with Rutherford and Ruthven, along with Jonathan Morduch and David Hulme, to produce "The Portfolios of the Poor," a book that will bring together the Financial Diaries findings from South Africa, India and Bangladesh. It is expected to be published later this year. Collins is currently pursuing doctoral work at New York University.
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Susan Davis
Who's that?
Chair of the Grameen Foundation and director of the Ashoka Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship
What does she do?
Davis chairs the board of Grameen Foundation, an internationally focused spin-off of Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank that provides around 3.6 million families in 22 countries with microfinancial services and technology. At Ashoka, Davis has the task of identifying innovative social entrepreneurs to invite into the organization’s growing global network of social entrepreneurs.
Davis is also a senior advisor to the general director of the International Labor Organization, and serves on the boards of BRAC USA, Project Enterprise, Aid to Artisans, Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund, and African Women’s Development Fund USA. Previously, she worked for some of the world’s leading development organizations, including World Women’s Banking and the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh.
What does she say?
Yvo de Boer
Who’s that?
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
What does he do?
Yvo de Boer has been actively involved in climate change policies since 1994. The Dutch politician helped shape position of the European Union in the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol and worked at various UN organizations throughout his career. In August 2006, de Boer, the former director for international affairs of the Dutch environment ministry, was appointed executive secretary of the UNFCCC.
Since his inauguration, the 53-year-old has tried to convince industrialized nations to curb greenhouse gas emissions more vigorously. Environmental groups, however, criticized de Boer for suggesting that rich nations should not be obligated to cut emissions if they paid developing countries to do so on their behalf.
Matthew Flannery
Who’s that?
Co-founder of Kiva.org
What does he do?
Flannery and his wife, Jessica, founded Kiva.org in 2005, which evolved into what Business Week magazine has called the “eBay of microfinance” for its unique peer-to-peer approach to microlending. Anybody with a credit card can use Kiva.org to transfer loans as small as 25 dollars directly to profiled entrepreneurs. So far, over 7 million loans from over 70,000 people have been dispersed through a network of partner microfinance institutions in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
The idea was born during a trip to Africa in 2004, after which Flannery built a small website featuring pictures and descriptions of entrepreneurs in one Ugandan village who needed some capital to start businesses. He found that friends and family were eager to send loans directly to entrepreneurs in the developing world. (Photo: Brian Oberkirch)
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Al Gore
Who’s that?
Chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, Former U.S. Vice-President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
What does he do?
Al Gore is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist. He gained international recognition as U.S. Vice-President under Bill Clinton. Today he is best known for his role in the fight against climate change. He starred in the award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." One of his many organizations, Save Our Selves, organized the worldwide benefit concert Live Earth to raise awareness about climate change.
Besides his work as an environmentalist, Gore acts as president of the American television channel Current TV, chairman of Generation Investment Management, board member of Apple Inc., and unofficial advisor to Google's senior management.
In December 2007, Gore and the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to promoting awareness of climate change.
James Hansen
Who’s that?
Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
What does he do?
James Hansen heads the NASA’S Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), one of the foremost research centers on atmospheric and climate changes in the 21st century. Hanson is also an adjunct professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department at Columbia University.
Hansen became famous for his testimony on climate change before Congress in the 1980s. He was one of the first to raise broad awareness of the global warming issue.
He is a critic of the Bush administration's stance on climate change. Hansen recently created a stir by claiming that NASA administrators and White House officials edited his statements about the causes of climate change to make global warming seem less threatening.
Before joining NASA in 1962, he studied physics and astronomy in the space science program at the University of Iowa. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics. In 1996, Hansen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Among the various honors bestowed upon him are the Heinz Environment Award for his research on global warming and the Dan David Prize.
Steve Howard
Who’s that?
Co-founder and CEO of The Climate Group
What does he do?
In 2003, Howard co-founded The Climate Group, a leading organization that advises government and business on carbon-reduction and climate mitigation strategies. Several large companies (HSBC, Google, British Telecom, British Petroleum, Allianz) and governments (London, New York City, and California) are members of The Climate Group.
As CEO of The Climate Group, Howard has advised and briefed many CEOs and political leaders on climate change. He also chaired a July 2006 climate change meeting with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and several business leaders in California.
Prior to his work at The Climate Group, Howard was director of WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network, as well as chairman of the UK Forest Stewardship Council and the Tropical Forest Trust.
What does he say?
Suzanne Hunt
Who’s that?
Director of the Worldwatch Institute’s Bioenergy Program
What does she do?
Suzanne Hunt is leading the Bioenergy Program at the Worldwatch Institute, an independent think tank working on environmental, social, and economic issues. Her recent work includes the study, Biofuels for Transportation. Her team assessed the opportunities and risks of large-scale international development of biofuels.
Before joining Worldwatch, she has worked on watershed management planning in New York State, sustainable forestry in Pennsylvania and teaching sakt marsh ecology in South Carolina. She has been a research fellow at Environmental Defense, an environmental non-profit, where she focused on social and environmental safeguard policy reform at the International Finance Institutes.
Hunt is a co- founder of “SmartFuel,” an organization dedicated to teaching children from how to turn waste grease from restaurant kitchens into fuel for their school buses. She is a steering committee member of the “BioEnergy Wiki," an information sharing hub. She also serves on the board of directors of the “Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance,” as well as the “Renew the Earth” organization.
What does she say?
Evan Mills
Who's that?
Staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
What does he do?
Mills has published important research about the intersection of climate change, energy efficiency, and risk management, including articles for Science and Forbes. Along with several detailed assessments of the global insurance industry’s response to climate change, Mills has also contributed as an author to the influential third and fourth UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments.
Dr. Mills co-authored an article about the legal consequences of global climate change on the insurance industry, which appeared in the Stanford Journal of International Law in the summer of 2007. He is also a member of the Earth Institute's Economics and Public Policy Working Group chaired by Jeffrey Sachs, and heads the Lumina Project, which works to introduce efficient, low-carbon, off-grid white LED lighting in the developing world.
What does he say?
Nicholas Negroponte
Who’s that?
Chairman of One Laptop per Child, Chairman of the MIT Media Lab
What does he do?
Nicholas Negroponte is an architect and computer scientist best known as the founder and chairman of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Negroponte’s current project, One Laptop per Child, aims at providing children around the world, especially those in developing countries, with an inexpensive laptop. Negroponte and former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan unveiled the so-called 100-dollar laptop in 2005. Full-scale production is expected to start in mid-2007. So far, countries scheduled for the pilot roll-out are Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand, Uruguay, and the United States.
Negroponte is also a businessman and writer. In 1992, he became the first investor of the newly created Wired magazine. He later summed up his columns written for Wired in a best-selling book, "Being Digital," which outlined his vision of an interactive world.
Rajendra Kumar Pachauri
Who’s that?
Chairman of the UN International Panel on Climate Change
What does he do?
India's Rajendra Kumar Pachauri chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002. The panel recently issued its fourth report, regarded as the most important forecast of global climate change.
After working in the private sector, Pachauri moved to the United States and studied at North Carolina State University. He received Ph.Ds in economics and industrial engineering and served as an assistant professor. Returning to India he joined the Staff College of India, Hyderabad. Since 1981 he has headed the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), a think tank focused on energy, environment, forestry, biotechnology, and the conservation of natural resources.
Pachauri also serves as the head of The Energy and Resources Institute, a developing-country institution devoted to sustainable development. The United Nations Development Programme appointed him as a part time advisor in the fields of energy and sustainable management of natural resources from 1994 to 1999. He is advisor and member of a number of organizations and research institutes, and has authored 21 books and numerous papers and articles.
In acknowledgement of his environmental contributions, Pachauri was awarded the Padma Bhushan - one of India's highest civilian awards that recognizes distinguished service to the nation - in 2001. In December 2007, the IPCC and Al Gore were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Jonathan Patz
Who’s that?
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
What does he do?
Dr. Patz is one of the world’s leading authorities on the human health risks of climate change. He directs the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin. He is also lead author of the United Nations/World Bank Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, as well as several World Health Organization (WHO) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports about the health impacts of global environmental change.
Since the early 1990s, he has lectured and published important scientific papers about how climate change and deforestation could increase heat-stress, malaria incidence, and the spread of other diseases. He co-edits the journal, Ecohealth: Conservation Medicine and Ecosystem Sustainability.
What does he say?
Bibi Russell
Who’s that?
Founder of Bibi Productions: Fashion for Development
What does she do?
Bibi Russell’s work and business is focused on improving the economic conditions of the some 35,000 weavers, designers and artisans in her native Bangladesh who have worked for her company, Bibi Productions. She has also worked with Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank, particularly its Grameen Uddog handloom enterprise in Bangladesh.
Since the 1970s, Russell has tried to show the beautiful side of Bangladesh. As a model, she has appeared in top magazines, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s Bazaar. From the mid-1990s, Russell launched successful international shows and fashion lines abroad showcasing Bangladeshi craftsmanship and local textile manufacturing. In 1998, after heavy flooding in Bangladesh had made millions of people homeless and destroyed much of the country's silk and weaving industry, she founded the charity “Save the Weavers” to help rebuild the industry.
Russell was voted “Woman of the Year” by Elle magazine in 1997, and since 1999, has enjoyed two prestigious titles – Honorary Fellow of the London Institute and the UNESCO Special Envoy: Designer for Development.
Jeffrey Sachs
Who's that?
Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University
What does he do?
Sachs has become perhaps the world's best-known economist for his work on poverty and disease reduction in the developing world. Along with his duties as Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, Sachs also directs The Earth Institute, which focuses the sustainability research carried out throughout the university. Sachs is also co-founder of Millennium Promise - a non-profit aimed at acheiving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa - as well as a special advisor to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
As an economics professor at Harvard University during the 1990s, Sachs helped find solutions to economic crises in various countries, most notably in Poland, Russia, and Bolivia. Since then, his work has become increasingly focused on addressing persistant poverty, hunger, and disease in the developing world, and finding an environmentally sustainable form of economic development. He advised former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, and has been a key figure in establishing the Millennium Villages, a group of nearly 80 villages across Africa where promising development and disease control measures are being be tested.
Sachs's bestselling book, "The End of Poverty" (2005), highlights some of the economic lessons learned from his work on various continents.
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Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
Who’s that?
Founder and director of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research
What does he do?
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is a leading scientist on climate change and an advisor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In 1991, he became founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), establishing the institution as one of Germany’s leading research centers on climate change. From 2001 to 2005 he also acted as a research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Schellnhuber is advisor and member of a number of national and international panels on environment and development matters. Among others, he contributed to the UN’s Climate Change Reports in the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His work at the Tyndall Centre also earned him the title of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire awarded by Queen Elizabeth II. He is an elected member of the Max Planck Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Leibniz-Sozietät, the Geological Society of London, and the International Research Society Sigma Xi, among others.
He has written over 190 articles and about 40 books in the fields of condensed matter physics, complex systems dynamics, climate change research, Earth system analysis, and sustainability science.
What does he say?
Andrew L. Shapiro
Who’s that?
Founder and CEO of GreenOrder
What does he do?
Andrew L. Shapiro is a writer, lawyer, and consultant interested in the impact of new technologies such as the Internet. His book, "The Control Revolution," talks about how technology changes society. In 2000, he founded the strategy and marketing firm GreenOrder that aims to turn sustainability into a source of business value.
Prior to his work at GreenOrder, Shapiro was senior advisor to the Markle Foundation and a lecturer at Columbia Law School. He served as director of the Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project and is a fellow of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is a co-founder of the Technorealism project, which raises public awareness about the impact of technology.
What does he say?
Nicholas Stern
Who’s that?
Lead author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
What does he do?
Sir Nicholas Stern is a British economist and academic. After serving as the chief economist and senior vice-president of the World Bank, he is now a civil servant and government economic advisor in the United Kingdom.
Due to his background in economic development and growth, Stern was appointed to conduct reviews on the economics of climate change in 2005. This culminated in the publication of the so-called Stern Review in October 2006.
The study gained global media attention for its thesis that climate change is an enormous market failure which will cause tremendous costs if left unattended. Stern called for policies that would enable market forces to develop low-carbon technologies to stop or at least mitigate climate change. The resulting costs, although in the billions, would be far below the costs of likely climate change impacts.
Stern holds a degree in mathematics and gained a Ph.D in economics. He has lectured at Cambridge University, the University of Warwick, and the London School of Economics. His research focused on economic development and growth, and he also wrote books on Kenya and the Green Revolution in India.
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Björn Stigson
Who’s that?
President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
What does he do?
The WBCSD is a coalition of around 200 corporations that share ideas and techniques on sustainable development. As president, Stigson emphasizes that sustainable development relies on three pillars: economic growth, ecological balance, and social progress.
Prior to taking his position at WBCSD in 1995, Stigson worked as a financial analyst at various international companies, both in his native Sweden and abroad. Presently, Stigson serves as an advisor to the Chinese government, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Dean’s Council of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also a member of the board of the Global Reporting Initiative and the International Risk Governance Council. In 2007, Stigson was ranked 9th among the "100 Most Influential People in Business" Ethics by Ethisphere Magazine.
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> http://www.wbcsd.org
David Suzuki
Who’s that?
Award-winning scientist, environmental activist, and board member of the David Suzuki Foundation
What does he do?
For over 30 years, Canadian scientist David Suzuki has received many awards for explaining the complexities of environmental science and genetics in a compelling, easily understandable way.
In 1990, he established the David Suzuki Foundation, an independent charity to promote resource conservation and environmental protection. Suzuki is renowned speaker about climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
Since the 1970s, Suzuki had been outspoken about climate change, describing it as a very real and pressing problem, and openly criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment.
Suzuki has published more than 40 books about science and environmental issues and has written, produced, and hosted several television and radio programs in Canada. He holds a biology degree from Amherst University and a doctorate in zoology from the University in Chicago. He has also received twenty honorary degrees from universities in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Michael P. Totten
Who’s that?
Senior Director at the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB)
What does he do?
At CELB, a branch of Conservation International, Totten advises businesses in the United States and abroad about the ecological and economic opportunities of energy efficiency, sustainability and climate-friendly investment.
Totten was advising the U.S. government about global warming long before the issue was grabbing headlines. During the 1980s, Totten was an instrumental figure in the drafting of the Global Warming Prevention Act of 1989.
He also served as co-director of the World Resources Institute's Management Institute for Environment and Business and executive director of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology, which has since become one of the most-consulted sources on sustainable development on the Internet.
Muhammad Yunus
Who’s that?
Founder of Grameen Bank, Nobel Prize Laureate
What does he do?
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. Trained as an economist in Bangladesh and later in the United States, Yunus returned to Bangladesh after the country became independent in 1971 to help with nation-building. He later lectured as an professor of economics, until he decided apply the concept of microcredit into practical life to protect small entrepreneurs from predatory lending.
In 1974, he gave out 27 dollars worth of loans to women in a village next to his university. After building on the initial success of these loans, he founded Grameen Bank in 1976, and the bank became an independent entity 1983. Despite setbacks, the bank grew throughout Bangladesh and has spawned many similar microcredit initiatives internationally.
In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Yunus received numerous other honors, including the ITU World Information Society Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award, the World Food Prize and the Sydney Peace Prize. He is the author of "Banker to the Poor" and a founding board member of Grameen Foundation.
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